Carol's Stories
by Dark2Ganny
Summary: A collection of short stories chronicling Carol, the assistant to Gustav St. Germain.
1. Christmas Carol

"It's cold," Daniel muttered, "It's freezing!"

He stood outside the Daily Days door. It was dangerous around this part of town, so a kid of his age probably shouldn't have been wondering on his own. Yet, here he was, waiting for something.

"You should have put on a jacket." a cute voice sounded from above him. Standing right outside the Daily Days' front door was Carol. "In this cold, it would have made sense to put on a coat or something."

"Don't say that like it's so easy, Carol." Daniel replied coolly. "Where's the Vice President?"

Carol stepped down from the small steps that led to the Daily Days' door and stood by Daniel in the cold. "He's finishing up some business. He promised to take us to see that movie, though!"

Daniel breathed on his hands in an attempt to keep the warm. "It doesn't have to be so cold this early, does it?"

"It's winter, after all." Carol told him bluntly.

"Oh, that reminds me. I read a story the other day..." Daniel began, "And it was a mystery novel in which using snow to cover up one's tracks was necessary. It apparently started snowing a few hours before the crime was committed. It got me to thinkin' about how my sense of reality would have to be suspended for that."

Carol watched Daniel's face morph into one of deep thought. It was normal for Carol to have these moments when trying to answer the Vice President's questions, but Daniel went deep into thought about these types of things of his own volition. He was certainly not normal. "And why is that?" she asked him.

"Think about it, it's not snowing today, and we can't be sure whether or not it will. And it wasn't described as heavy snow, so how did enough to cover a crime scene accumulate in that time?"

"That will sometimes happen in fiction, though."

The door behind them made the sound of opening and closing. When Daniel and Carol looked up, they saw the Vice President, Gustav St. Germain.

"Hello, Sir." Carol immediately responded.

"Carol, are you aware of what today is?" Gustav asked, obviously referring to the fact that today was Christmas Eve.

"It's obvious, Vice President," Daniel responded instead, "After all, your Christmas gift to us was to bring us to this movie, right?"

Gustav St. Germain started walking in the general direction of the theater to which they were going to. Daniel and Carol exchanged quick glances before falling in right behind him. "So, what was this movie about, again?" Daniel asked.

"I don't remember." Carol responded.

They suddenly came to a halt as Gustav stopped. "Huh? Isn't the theater a little further away?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, but wait here a moment." Gustav responded, looking back briefly at the two children before stepping down a little further and entering a store.

"What's he up to?"

Carol looked on in confusion. "Sometimes, I don't understand what Mr. Vice President is thinking."

"Would it be normal _to _know?"

Carol laughed lightly. "No, I suppose not. But this is all in the trade, don't you think?"

"You mean working for the Daily Days, right? I guess it takes someone like Gustav to be praised so highly in the business. He's a pretty knowledgeable man." Daniel started rubbing his hands together. "Man, it's really cold out here."

"Oh, I told you it would only make sense to put on a coat or something. It's winter, you know." Carol told him, taking his hands in hers. Her winter mittens were warm from her body heat. Daniel couldn't help but blush.

"Ah, look here! I smell young love blooming in the air!" a man suddenly shouted, taking a closer look at Carol and Daniel. He was dressed like Santa Clause.

There was a woman beside him, dressed in a similar get-up. She laughed a little before asking, "But does young love really have a scent?"

"Some people can smell feelings. It's a special trait certain people have!" the man said with an unneeded sense of confidence.

"Incredible!" the woman applauded him.

"It's like a flower during the later months of winter. You know when Spring comes around, the flower will bloom beautifully! Young love happens to work the same way, you see? These two will blossom like the flowers!"

"Beautiful flowers!"

The bravado of the man's words was impressive, considering the strange things coming out of his mouth. "Yes, just for the young lovebirds here, we have something special! The job of Santa is to bring presents to the good little kids of the world, after all."

"Wow! You two must be on the Nice List, then!"

Daniel's face had turned beet red, yet Carol was only slightly blushing at the words. The man dressed like Santa Clause opened a sack that he had been carrying over his shoulder and handed the two children about ten dollars.

"Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!"

The two strange people, both dressed like Santa, took their leave.

"What an odd duo..." Daniel commented, the ten dollars in his hand. There were two five-dollar bills. He handed one to Carol, but she declined.

"You keep it." she said. Daniel stuffed the money in his pocket. "Anyway, those two seem perfect for each other, don't they?"

"I guess so." Daniel said, thinking about what to do with his recently acquired money.

The two children stood there for another few minutes before Gustav St. Germain returned to them. "Here you go," he said, holding out two _Baccano! _candy bars.

"Wow!" Daniel remarked, snatching one and immediately unwrapping the candy. "Thank you, Mr. Vice President!"

Carol took the other candy bar into her hands and smiled. "Thank you, Sir."

Even Gustav St. Germain smiled during this scene. "Merry Christmas, you two." he said gently. "Now then, let's go watch the movie, shall we?"

Daniel nodded, munching down on the chocolate. Carol placed hers in her coat pocket.

It seems the strange people of New York were in the Holiday spirit this year.


	2. Big Lipped Alligator

"W-what did you say!?" Elean, an employee of the Daily Days shouted out in complete shock. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to look in his direction. The person standing before him was Henry.

"Yes, it seems we've..." Henry started, but then looked the other way, a tear actually strolling down his cheek. "We've run out of paper!" he finally spat out.

Complete silence. It hung in the air for several minutes.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT!?" every single employee started shouting, screaming, etc.

Fights were breaking out, one man harassed one woman while shouting about the loss of paper. There was a person getting out his gun and being tackled by the people around him. Obscenities were shouted as loudly as possible. It seemed as if people were going to start flying around the room like monkeys.

"Everyone calm down! Everyone!" Gustav St. Germain said in vain. He looked around disgustedly, then jumped up on the desk before him. It was a spectacular sight. "Everyone shut up this instant!"

Silence returned to the room as every eye trained itself on Gustav.

"Everything will be okay." he said calmly, trying to reassure the employees. "I know someone who can get us more paper, as much as is needed. Someone who can make the dangerous trek." He was actually over-exaggerating that. "And that person's name is..." he took hold of his cane and started scanning the room with it, holding it out as if it were a sword. "Carol!" he finally shouted.

Everyone shifted from their place to reveal Carol in the back of the room, a piece of bread hanging from her mouth. "Huh?" she voiced her confusion, dropping the bread as her mouth opened. "Is it really my job, Sir?" she asked.

Gustav stepped down from the desk and did a jolly walk toward Carol. "Yes, Carol, this is your destiny! You are the only one capable of remedying this crisis!"

"W-well, if you say so, Sir."

"Good, Carol, over nine-thousand points to you!"

"Eh? Out of how many, Sir?" she asked, running out of the building. As soon as she step foot on concrete, she bumped into Daniel. "Oh, sorry. I'm in a hurry."

Daniel shook his head. "No problem. I was actually just going to ask Mr. Vice President something. But, I'm curious as to where you're going."

"Oh, well, I'm going to get paper for the staff. Only I can, it seems."

"Is that so? Can I come along?"

Carol waited for a moment before answering. She nodded slowly, spun around and started walking on. Daniel scratched his head in slight confusion before falling in right behind her.

"I wonder... why did they decide you're the only one capable of doing this job?" Daniel asked casually, watching the people pass by them. There was something odd about them.

"Who knows. Everyone seems to be acting weird today."

One man passed by, and he had no face. "Yeah, no kidding." Daniel said, watching the man disappear in the distance. Daniel rubbed his eyes and started to wonder if he was seeing things.

Just as he turned back to look at the back of Carol's head, an old woman stepped out in front of them. She had a face, but it was more dog-like than anything.

"Hello, youngsters," the woman said in a gruff voice, "I was on my way to... To..."

The strange old woman fell over on the ground. Carol and Daniel gaped at the scene for several moments. Then, the old woman stood right back up, gasping, and continuing what she was saying, "To buy some food. Care to come along?"

"No." Carol replied immediately, walking past the old woman.

Daniel slowly caught up with her after falling behind, gaping at the old woman. "H-hey, Carol. I think something really weird is up today."

"No kidding." Carol responded simply.

Everything seemed...

"Off..." Daniel muttered.

Paper. Paper was found in a small store. Though, something was odd about this store as well. The clerk was none other than...

"Hello, how may I help you, little girl?" a cheerful voice called out as Carol and Daniel walked into the store.

"W-w-w-w-wait, Carol, isn't that the..." Daniel stuttered out. The store clerk was, indeed, the Rail Tracer.

"We just need some paper." Carol ignored him completely and talked to Claire Stanfield as if it were nothing. "A lot of it, too."

"Hey, wait a minute!"

The Rail Tracer then responded to Carol, "Okay, but only if the boy can beat me in a fight to the death."

"Okay." Carol said simply and turned to Daniel, "You can do that much, right?"

"Eeeeeeeeh?!"

_What the heck is going on here?!_

Claire jumped out from behind his desk and swung a fist at Daniel, who dodged it seamlessly. Not even he knew what had happened just then. Daniel then pulled a sword from his back.

"W-what? Where did this come from?!" he cried, swinging the sword around in a panicked manner. "What is going ooooooooon?!"

After decapitating Claire, and alarm started going off. Daniel looked around for Carol hurriedly, and she walked out of the back room with a single sheet of paper. Holding it up with a smile, she said, "Looks like this is all they got." Then she started laughing, casually walking out of the store. A hole opened up in the ceiling and a bomb fell into the store. "We should leave." Carol said nonchalantly.

Running out of the building, which exploded behind him, Daniel was screaming.

And then...

"Brilliant! This will last us another good five seconds! Someone get printing!" an employee of the Daily Days was barking orders. Someone threw the sheet of paper into a typewriter and started typing furiously.

After finishing, he took a deep breath, looked around the office. "Well... it seems we've... we've run out of paper!"

"WHAAAAAAAT?!"

"Whoa!" Daniel shouted, jumping up from the ground and taking deep breaths. "Huh?" He looked around. He was lying down in some abandoned building like he usually does. "Oh, it was only a dream, only a dream..." Then, after thinking about it for a moment, "Damn, why can't I at least get a kiss in my dreams?"


End file.
